I can’t tell this story without bragging a little. So, I’ll
get that over with. Both my wife and I are writers and when we hit a milestone
in our book sales, we are allowed to choose the restaurant of our choice to go
to dinner at. I hit thirty-thousand so I decided that the restaurant I wanted
to go to was the main dining room on the Eurodam.
She told me that was dirty low-down scoundrel behavior, but
since it was a major milestone, she agreed. So, I booked a one-day cruise from
Vancouver to Seattle.
We live right between the two cities and a one-day cruise
makes a good weekend get-away. We take the train to Vancouver. The morning
train allows us time to get to Canada Place and hop on the ship a little after
noon. Then we sail down to Seattle and take a bus home. We arrived back around
1:30.
Plans all made and reservations set, we’re ready to go. I
booked a guaranteed balcony. Three weeks before the cruise, we finally find out
what our cabin number is. In the end, that didn’t matter because a week later I
get an email with an upgrade offer. For $49, I can upgrade to a suite. Hmm, let
me think about that. Oh, okay if I have to. I’m cheap, so I’ve never been in a
suite before, but 30,000 is a big number and 49 is a little one.
We waited for the Amtrak at the station. This is the part I
worry about. Amtrak always arrives a little late, and that’s okay. When it
arrives a lot late, then we have a problem. It’s only done that once, so when
it was announced that the train was arriving only 15 minutes late, I actually
breathed a sigh of relief.
The train ride is fun. The tracks follow the coastline so
you see some of the picturesque parts of Washington and British Columbia. We
passed dozens of bald eagles sitting on rocks by the ocean, or flying around.
But then the train turns inland and goes past junkyards and old rusted
warehouses. No worries, that goes by quickly and soon we arrived at the
station.
The train starts out at Seattle and is almost full by the
time it reaches my town. We are ushered on to the last car. They unload with
the first car and work their way back. Immigration doesn’t want to be
overwhelmed. We had a family with young children and three disabled people in
the car with us. We hadn’t bothered to climb the stairs up to the top level of
the train car, just grabbed some seats and sat down. When it came time to
disembark, the conductor let the family get a head start.
A little while later, she came in and said, “I’m going to
let you guys get started.”
I took that to mean those who were going to be slow could
get off now, which was everyone but us. Deb thought it meant everyone in the
lower level. We went with Deb’s idea. We were able to beat the crowd. I did
feel guilty about it, but got over it quickly. We took a cab to Canada Place.
It only cost 11 bucks Canadian which translates to $8 U.S. which is about
double what it would have cost us to take the Skytrain.
Getting on a cruise ship in Vancouver can be a major
headache at times. It has taken four to five hours in the past. This time we
figured it took about five minutes from when we got out of the cab until we
stepped on the ship. Amazing. Customs had a kiosk and we did that instead of
talking to a custom’s officer. When we handed the agent a printout he said,
“Hi. Bye.”
The part that took the longest was getting the key card.
Wow, what a difference.
We headed down to the main dining room for lunch. I had a
hamburger. In Deb’s opinion, hamburgers aren’t cruise food. I should have had
something fancy that I don’t normally get at home. I thought it was a fancy
hamburger and I liked it.
The lifeboat drill was out on the deck. I like it better
when they sit you in the theater and show you how to put on your life jacket.
It went quick, though, which I appreciated.
We were supposed to leave at 4:45, but the time came and
went, and we were still there. The captain announced there were divers under
the ship working on something. We didn’t leave until 6:30.
Dinner was well worth it. Deb said her halibut was a little
dry, but my dinner was excellent. We both had crab cakes for an appetizer, then
I had a tart and a tarte for dessert. Two different flavored treats. We made
friends with a couple from Seattle and invited them to join us in playing
trivia. Even though we only had 12 of 16 questions right, it was enough to win.
They gave us a bottle of wine and Holland America Caribbean ship’s pin as
prizes. I’ve never been to the Caribbean on Holland America and neither couple
drank, so we had her give the wine to the runners up, but kept the ship’s pin.
Entertainment was amazing. We started out at the BB King’s
Blues Club. Then when the Main Stage show started, we headed there. The show took
modern songs and played them like they had come from the 1930s. I didn’t like
the concept. I’m not a fan of that era, but the singers and the band were super
talented, so we stayed. Then we made our way to the piano bar called Billboard
Onboard. That was the most fun of the three. They were having an ‘Orange
Party.’ The king of Holland has adapted it as his color. That was rocking.
Waiters kept coming by with trays of hors d'oeuvres. The room was packed so it
was standing room at the edges. We were there about a half hour before we
managed to find a seat. Deb even sang along to some of the songs. She said it
was okay, because with everyone else doing it, no one could really hear her. We
stayed until the piano players took a break, then we headed to our room. Even
though it was late by this point, Deb went up to try out the jetted tub and
bath salts.
When I climbed in bed, I noted it was on the hard side. Not
bad, just more than I like. Deb was saying that the bed was so comfortable. So,
I crowded her, and yep, her side of the bed was comfy. Oh, well, too late to
change sides now. After a sharp elbow in the gut, I rolled back to my own side
of the bed.
When I woke, we were creeping slowly along in Elliot Bay
close to pier 91. I went back to sleep for five minutes. By then we were
docked.
Even though it was only a one-day cruise, we had a blast.
Live music all night, friendly people everywhere. I figure it was about half
and half between Canadian and American as far as fellow passengers go. The ship
was clean and the crew was great. Holland America hit a home run with the Music
Row on deck two concept.
It was funny, we were eating breakfast in the dining room
when the announcement came, “I hope you had a good cruise, now get off our
ship.”
It was worded better than that, but the meaning was the
same. The whole ship had expedited disembarkation, so they had one call for the
expedited, then a few minutes later they had a last call for everyone to leave
the ship.
We had a blast. Disembarkation went smooth. All through the
cruise I kept commenting to Deb how the ship felt so uncrowded. The only time
there had been a crowd was at the piano bar. It was worth having to stand for a
half hour though, we both really enjoyed it.
Cruise Books by Deb Graham
